Do not volunteer here

I was drawn in by sapa pulling animals off of EBI. I enjoyed actually treating the sick animals that no one wanted or neglected and giving them a chance to get adopted and not killed. One thing is that the supervisors Holly, Joul and Rob are very mean and drive away volunteers. I use to volunteer at the sapa acs location and was treated very VERY badly by them that I just left. Not many people volunteered and I can understand why.
I signed up to come in at 7am because they needed help and were always shorthanded at the ACS location. I use to volunteer at other animal shelters, no kills and clinics for several years and had much experience.
But I could honesty tell you why they were short handed. Rob, Holly and Joul treat volunteers like CRAP!!
You basically have to see where you are needed or ask around when you get there. My first day volunteering was very exciting but right when I walked into the door at 10 till 7am, I had just walked to sign in and Rob shoved dirty dishes in my face. They were covered in dry dog food and feces and he shoved it in my face and demanded, "WHY ARE THESE DISHES DIRTY?! I was shocked by the treatment on the first day. "I just got here and no one was here..." Only to have them shoved in my arms and told to move my @$$. So I washed dishes only to have Joul ask me why the cages weren't clean yet. *note the sink was in the back*"I was told to wash the dishes." "Cages need to be clean. I'm not having my customers come in to see dirty cages because of you." They had kennel techs btw. This went on for a several months because I came in every other day.
The kennel techs were real nice and had me help them in cleaning and feeding. Still, most of the time it would be just me because the kennel techs called in sick. We didn't get much volunteers till later in the day. They had kittens that needed to be bottle fed and you guessed it, Just me. A volunteer had come in to bottle feed some kittens and taken a few outside to feed. They were placed in a crate. I was washing dishes only to have a acs staff member announce that the volunteer had left and the cage was sitting outside in the sun. The kittens died of heat stroke.
Before the move to marbach, the kitten ward was in the same building as the dogs. The techs needed help bottle feeding so I'd go and feed the kittens 7am sharp. It was a break from Holly's nonstop yanking me around and scolding me and Rob shoving things in my face because I was there for the animals. I had SO many kittens to bottle feed and just one bottle. Even if I was allergic, I came in to help them because it was just 2 cat techs and 4 dog techs no volunteers at 7am, only afternoons. I'd be making the kittens food only to have Joul come in and ask me why the floor hadn't been mopped up or something in that nature. I was ask to bottle feed only to be scolded by him.
Rob, Joul and Holly had a very bad habit of telling the techs to not do something and let me do it but never told me. I'd be either bottle feeding kittens, picking up dog poop, cleaning cages only to feel Rob jab his finger in my back demanding why something wasn't done. I'd be confused because I was not told only to be yelled at. The techs got yelled at and they said "don't worry, they are like that, he should of told you. You can't read his mind." I felt bad for the staff.
The final straw was when the parvo outbreak that happened at sapa. I didn't like that the general cleaning was a quick rinse and leave the poop on the cage bars and put a new puppy in it. I asked that they should at least disinfect it but was told, 'WE need these dogs in the cages and have to time to be messing around." I was shocked when Rob would use the same dishes that the parvo puppies had, rinse them lightly and gave them to another that wasn't sick. I was taught by a nokill shelter not to do that and would soak them in hot water and disinfect them. It took to long that Rob would just rinse and give them to another dog hense why the parvo outbreak lasted so long. *The puppies who didn't eat or had bloody stool were marked with a clip on the cage.*So that cage had a clip and no healthy puppy should go in there.
I'd leave in the after noon and come back 2 days later and guess what happened?
You guess it. I'd walk in at 7am and be pulled aside by Rob or Joul and be yelled at, WHY? Because the day I wasn't there, someone had made that switch that a healthy puppy was in a parvo dogs cage and since I volunteer to help clean cages, I was blamed by the kennel techs. The sign in sheet proved I wasn't there for two days but I got the blame for it. I was sent to not work with the dogs only unloading food and I kinda got fed up that I left the truck open and walked off.
During that time, I never saw 1 volunteer that did the work I did, maybe bottle fee but thats about it.
I got tired of being treated so badly by the supervisor Rob/Holly and Joul that I just left one day because I'm a volunteer and I came in to help. I'm not being paid but wanted to help these EBI animals but not with these three. They are horrible.I think they are singing a different tune after this aired about them
http://www.ksat.com/news/defenders/San-Antonio-Pets-Alive-accused-of-mistreatment/-/478436/15705952/-/i2krwb/-/index.html
As for the kittens in this story, most come in sick and are treated on the spot. Some come in too late but the kitten ward is the place with the nicest staff. STAY AWAY FROM THE ACS SAPA LOCATION.

Comments

This happened over 2 yrs ago. The kittens are in a separate facility. Parvo pups are in a different facility now and under constant care. There are now 2 new adoption centers for well puppies that need volunteers and one is across from the SA Zoo. A start up always has problems and stress. Give them a chance.

There is no excuse for what happened and there never will be. SA Pets Alive pulls animals, throws them to anyone will take them, and does not follow up. They regularly release animals without ANY vet check, without ANY behavioral check, and without being spayed and neutered or with a REGISTERED chip. I have personally found 3 dogs, each not fixed, running loose with an UNREGISTERED microchip which came from SAPA. They need to be stopped immediately. The problems continue and EVERYONE in the rescue community knows it's a racket. Hopefully they will leave San Antonio for good shortly.